MacLeod, Xavier Donald, 1821-1865

Cornelius Xavier Donald MacLeod was born in New York city on November 17, 1821, the son of Rev. Alexander McLeod (1774-1833), a Presbyterian clergyman, and Mary Ann Agnew (1778-1841). His father, Alexander MacLeod, immigrated from Scotland in 1792. Donald was one of eleven children, only four of whom survived into adulthood.

Much to the regret of his family, he took orders in the Protestant Episcopal church in 1845, and was given charge of a parish in the country. MacLeod served as chaplain to Bishop Ives and was pastor of a small rural parish in New York. In 1847, Rev. MacLeod was assigned rector of St. John's, Huntington, Suffolk County, New York. Rev. MacLeod transferred to the Diocese of North Carolina during the General Convention of 1847. Rev. MacLeod left his post as pastor of the Church of the Holy Innocents in 1849 and returned to New York. He subsequently left the Episcopal church altogether.

In 1850, he decided to visit Europe and continue his studies. In 1850, in Neufchatel, Switzerland, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, MacLeod was conditionally baptized into the Catholic Church. MacLeod returned to New York from Europe in early 1852. He turned to literary pursuits for several years, joining the New York literary club Ornithringtos Paradoxos and keeping company with Washington Irving, George Bancroft, N. P. Willis, Fitz James O'Brien, and Lewis Gaylord Clarke. He was a prolific writer, contributing to the Knickerbocker of which Clarke became editor in 1834. MacLeod's principle literary works are: "Pynnshurst, His Wanderings and Ways of Thinking," published in 1852; "Life of Sir Walter Scott," which appeared in the same year; "Bloodstone," in 1853; "Life of Ferdinand Wood, Mayor of New York," in 1856, and "Life of Mary Queen of Scots," in 1857.

MacLeod left New York and eventually found his way to St. Louis around 1857. He was given charge of the Sunday edition the St. Louis "Leader," and was editor of Shepherd of the Valley, both prominent and influential Roman Catholic papers. Macleod's abrupt departure from St. Louis for Cincinnati has been noted to be the result of a "scandalous alliance with a noted St. Louis beauty."[8] Archbishop John B. Purcell, of Cincinnati, refutes claims of this supposed scandal in his Memoir preface to "The Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary in North America" by Rev. Donald MacLeod.

MacLeod wrote to Archbishop Purcell in 1857-1858, who offered him a place on the faculty at Mount St. Mary's Seminary of the West. He arrived in Cincinnati in February, 1858 and taught English, French, Latin, Rhetoric, and belles lettres. He occasionally contributed articles to the Catholic Telegraph, as well as studying for his own ordination. He was ordained a priest in the Seminary Chapel by Archbishop Purcell on October 15, 1861. Father MacLeod was appointed chaplain to the Sisters of Charity, a position which he held until his departure from the Seminary.

The death of Father William J. Barry, the young Rector of the Seminary, in 1863, left a void in the noble heart of Father MacLeod that was never filled. Kelly and Kirwin write: "The beautiful characters of these two professors, so unlike in many things, and so similar in others, one gentle quiet and retiring, the other stern, aggressive, and impulsive, are among the best treasured traditions of Mt. St. Mary's. They found in each other, traits which bound one to the other in bonds of manly friendship. Father MacLeod preached the funeral oration over the body of his friend, and after the burst of tears in which he concluded his eloquent eulogy, his friends noticed a decided change in his character. The sad death left something wanting in his life, something that time never furnished."

Soon after the library fire of 1863, Father MacLeod quit his posts at the Seminary and settled permanently as the pastor of St. Vincent de Paul in Sedamsville.

He died from the results of injuries received in a railroad accident near Cincinnati. Ohio, June 30, 1865.